Despite the current weak economic climate, according to the box receipts, so far this year it appears many moviegoers refuse to let the economy come between them and their movies.
Thanks partially to box office hits like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and the recent “Fast and the Furious” installment, which grossed more during its opening weekend than any domestic spring-release film ever, box office profits continue to increase. But so do ticket prices ““ even as many personal budgets are made slimmer.
It’s as good a time as any for patrons to get creative and change their strategies when it comes to sustaining the luxury of going to the movies. One thing that perhaps hasn’t changed is the reason they go in the first place.
“We certainly saw it happen in the Great Depression,” said independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg.
“Audiences turned to escapist cinema with big budget movies and movie stars that had happy endings and lots of flashy distracting things.”
Swanberg premiered his latest film “Alexander the Last” at the SXSW festival and concurrently released it on video on demand. This method gets more films out there and lets audiences escape while in their own homes.
“I completely understand that impulse to want to go to the movies to escape your life, not to be confronted by everything that’s going on,” he said.
In this corner of the country, audiences continue to escape to the Mann Bruin Theatre where manager Graciela Hernandez has noticed consistent ticket sales spanning her eight years at the Bruin theater, regardless of the economy. But for a lot of viewers, coughing up $10 or more for only two or so hours of escapism just isn’t a fair trade anymore.
For those who don’t want to turn to downloading pirated films online, movie lovers can take advantage of more wallet-friendly film screenings and apparently already have. CEC Films offers UCLA students $2 screenings of recently released films as well as free screenings of yet-to-be released films. Staff member and third-year sociology student Madison Vanderberg isn’t seeing any shortage in attendance.
“We had as many (attendees) as we did when we had Bruin Bash,” Vanderberg said of spring quarter’s first two sneak peeks. “We honestly have not had these kinds of numbers all year.”
Likewise, Daniel Steinhart, a graduate student of cinema and media studies in the film school, organizes free bi-weekly sneak peeks of less mainstream films at the James Bridges Theater as the director of Melnitz Movies, funded by the Graduate Students Association.
“On the whole, audience attendance has been really strong,” Steinhart said. “I’d say it’s just been a half dozen films that have had disappointing turnouts, and that’s usually because they’re really weird, obscure movies, and it’s hard to bring in an audience for that type of thing (anyway).”
It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to bring in an audience for something as unique as the New Beverly Cinema ““ an oddity considering the New Beverly is “one of the very last traditional full-time double feature repertory houses in the whole country,” according to owner and manager Michael Torgan.
Since its conception in 1978, the theater has continuously offered a mix of movies such as old Hollywood classics and recent independent films. Students pay $6 for a double feature and used to make up the cinema’s core audience. Torgan attributed the theater’s waning turnout of the college demographic not to the economic downturn but rather to the youth’s waning interest in revival cinema and the onset of the digital age of DVDs. Torgan struggles to keep the theater alive without raising ticket prices but continues to offer the same unique program his father started more than 30 years ago. Despite the convenience of DVDs, Torgan isn’t surprised that people still go to the movies.
“It’s only so long you can stay at home all the time watching movies,” he said. “Nothing beats the theatrical experience.”
Students like Vanderberg can indulge in the theatrical experience without emptying their pockets by taking advantage of L.A.’s abundance of film production companies and their constant free sneaks. Even if there is a cost, her passion for movies outranks any impact her financial situation might have. “I don’t want to spend money on movies if I don’t have to,” Vanderberg said. “To be honest, I do like to see every movie that comes out so I probably go to one paid movie and one or two free ones a week.”
When it comes down to it, entertainment-based lifestyles don’t have to change with the economy as long as moviegoers get a little creative. This is also true for our entertainers as indie filmmakers explore new approaches of distributing their films. Escapism continues to be a force driving audiences to the movies. After all, in the midst of tough times, unsure of what lies ahead, all we can really do is hope for a happy ending and maybe a couple extra bucks in our pockets.